Mumbai, Feb 1 (IANS): Director-writer duo Siddharth–Garima, whose writing credits include ‘Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela’, ‘Bajirao Mastani’, ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’, ‘Padmaavat’, ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’, ‘Kabir Singh’ and others, shared that their new movie ‘Saale Aashiq’, is a progressive story of rebels in love.
The duo recently spoke with IANS about their film, it’s male lead Tahir Raj Bhasin and the experience of working with Indian auteur Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Talking about the film, Siddharth told IANS, “‘Saale Aashiq’ has a journey of 10-12 years. The idea came to us more than a decade ago. What made the film stand out was the fact that the eloped lovers were subjected honour killing at the end of the story”.
However, the film’s strength also came in the way of its saleability as Garima said, “A producer is the first audience for a writer. It’s the producer, who will sign off the project depending on their liking for your story. When we thought of the story, the trend in Hindi cinema were greatly different from what’s there today. However, the changing times brought the opportunities for brave stories to be told, and that’s how ‘Saale Aashiq’ took its form”.
The duo also spoke about the film’s male lead, Tahir Raj Bhasin who stars opposite actress Mithila Palkar.
They told IANS, “So far, Tahir has not played the quintessential Hindi film lead in films. This film presents him and skills in a new light. He forms an impeccable team with Mithila as they try everything to fight for their in love in the film”.
When asked about their experience of working with SLB, Siddharth told IANS, “He is the master of his craft. What we learnt from him was to stay true to the essence of story”.
Garima shared, “Like for instance, for ‘Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela’, he asked us to travel to Gujarat, and just absorb the culture by travelling in the constricted lanes of rural Gujarat. That one thing gave us so much perspective, we observed the old world architecture of the Rabari people which found its way in the story”.
She added, “This is one thing that we still follow to this day. We make it a point to completely detach from Mumbai and go to the place where our story is set to bring that authenticity to the film”.
‘Saale Aashiq’ is available on Sony Max.